


From the Mouths of Babes

by EldritchSandwich



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Brother-Sister Relationships, Coming Out, Confessions, Crying, F/F, Fluffy Sandwich, Gen, Light Angst, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Teenage Drama, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:25:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6455746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchSandwich/pseuds/EldritchSandwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melanie has no plans to come out of the closet any time soon. Shame no one told her little brother Max that...</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Mouths of Babes

Melanie barely had the front door open before Max bolted past her into the house, the force of his tiny body practically slamming her against the door frame. She rolled her eyes.

"Kids, is that you?" a voice asked from the kitchen.

"Yeah Mom, we're home," Melanie shouted back. She set her backpack down by the coffee table, and when she looked up Oscar had jumped up onto the arm of the couch and was purring in her face. She scooped the big gray tomcat up with a gentle coo. "Aw, hey Oscar. How was your day?"

Whatever response the cat might or might not have had was cut off when Melanie's energetic little brother smashed into her again. But this time he wasn't trying to get past her; before she could react, her back was slamming into the floor between the couch and the coffee table and Max was violently prying Oscar's shrieking, squirming form from her shocked hands.

Melanie sat up, watching in confusion as Max tried to keep hold of the hissing, panicking cat. Her shoulder hurt; she probably hit it on the coffee table on the way down. "Max, what the hell?"

Their mother turned the corner from the kitchen at a full sprint just as Oscar wrenched himself out of Max's arms and bolted for the stairs. She looked down at her children, one lying on the floor clutching her shoulder and the other standing over her crying, and went wide-eyed in shock. "What happened in here?"

"Max just shoved me over and tried to grab Oscar!" Melanie pushed off from the coffee table and teetered uneasily back to her feet as her mother turned to face Max. The first-grader shook his head.

"She was gonna hurt him!"

Melanie and her mother both blinked in shock. "What? I was just petting him!"

"Sweetie, I'm sure your sister wouldn't want to hurt Oscar."

"No, she was! She was gonna eat him!"

Their mother laughed as Melanie's look of confusion grew. "What? Max, where did you get an idea like that?"

Max jutted his lip out proudly. "David said at school! He said he heard his big brother talking about Melanie, and he said she loved eating pussies!"

Melanie and her mother both froze. The elder Spencer turned to her daughter to find her ashen, eyes bulging and lips trembling. She took a deep breath. "Mel—"

Before she could even finish her name, the teenager had bolted for the stairs exactly like the frightened cat. Mrs. Spencer let out an angry sigh and turned to find her son looking up at her with wide eyes. "Mommy, what's wrong? Why does Melanie want to eat cats? Is she in trouble?"

"Max!" his mother snapped, then sighed. "Just...go to your room!"

"Mommy? Am...am I in trouble?" His bottom lip started to quiver, and Mrs. Spencer pinched the bridge of her nose with a groan.

"No, sweetie, you're not in trouble, just...please just go to your room until I come talk to you, okay?"

"Oh. Okay..." Max headed for the stairs, head down, clearly having no idea what he'd done. Mrs. Spencer shook her head as she followed him; _one crisis at a time._

Melanie had the bedroom at the end of the hall, the one that looked out over the backyard. The door was locked, and as Mrs. Spencer knocked she prayed she wouldn't have to break in and find the window open and her daughter long gone. "Melanie, sweetheart...please, just unlock the door so we can talk, okay? Please? I just want to talk to you, honey."

There were a few tense moments of silence before she heard the click of the lock. She wasted no time in stepping into the room to find Melanie leaning against her bed, her eyes red and puffy and her arms tightly hugging her chest. Mrs. Spencer's already worried expression completely collapsed.

"Oh, sweetie, come here..."

Melanie didn't resist as her mother gathered her into a hug, just started crying and shaking all over again. "I'm sorry," she mumbled against her mother's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

"Shh, shh sweetie," Mrs. Spencer murmured as she stroked her daughter's hair. "You don't have anything to be sorry for. I'm...I'm the one who's sorry."

Melanie stiffened and pulled back just enough to give her mother a confused look. Mrs. Spencer pursed her lips; she was barely holding it together herself. "Melanie...your father and I love you so much. And we just want you to be happy, but...we could never find a way to tell you."

Melanie's brow furrowed. "Tell me what?"

Her mother gave her a brittle smile. "That we knew." Melanie's eyes went wide. "We...we've known for...quite a while. And we didn't want to...to push you, but maybe we should have. We should have been there for you."

Melanie shook her head. "Mom, I..." She just started sobbing again as her mother pulled her back into the hug, guiding her down to sit on the edge of the bed and holding her until her tears slowed. When she pulled back, Mrs. Spencer stroked her daughter's hair with an attempt at a smile.

"Now...obviously, I want to talk as much as you feel comfortable with. I just...need to go check on your brother first. It's up to you whether I tell him, but...I do need to explain things a little."

Melanie sniffed and shook her head. "Actually, um...could I talk to him? I think maybe I should be the one to talk to him."

Her mother studied her for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, sweetie. If you think so. I'll be downstairs, okay?"

Melanie nodded. "Okay. Mom?" Mrs. Spencer paused on her way to the door and turned back. "I love you."

Her mother smiled. "I love you too, sweetheart."

Melanie wiped her eyes, taking a few deep breaths in the process. She felt like she'd just run a marathon. Now she just had to go talk to Max. As she got up, she couldn't help a quiet smirk; of all the times she'd obsessed over how she'd end up coming out, this eventuality had certainly never been on the list.

Max looked up as the door to his bedroom creaked open. He wasn't crying, but it was a near thing. Melanie felt a pang of guilt, but pushed it aside. "Hey, buddy."

"Did I get you in trouble?" her brother mumbled, and she smiled.

"No. No, it's okay. But...I have to talk to you."

Max was already sitting on his bed, and he curled up as his sister carefully sat down next to him.

"Max...you know I don't eat cats, right?"

Max frowned. "Then why did David's brother say you did?"

Melanie winced. "Look, what he said...what he said didn't mean that. What he said was...it was a really, really mean way of saying that..." Her brother was giving her his rapt attention. She took a deep breath. "Of saying that I like kissing girls instead of boys."

Max was silent for a few seconds, then just said "Oh." There were a few more seconds of silence, during which Melanie increasingly felt like she was going to throw up her heart. Then Max said "I've never heard of that."

Melanie tried to smile. "Well...some people don't like it. They think that...that only boys and girls should be together. So I was afraid to tell anyone."

Max's eyes were narrowed in thought. "So...you want to have a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend?"

Melanie's smile eased a little. "Yeah."

Max frowned. "Did Mom not know? Is that why you're mad at me?"

Melanie sighed. "I'm not mad at you, Max. I...I thought Mom didn't know, but it turns out she did."

"Did David's brother want you to be his girlfriend? Is that why he was so mad about you liking girls?"

Melanie tried not to scowl. David's brother Owen was in a few of her classes; he'd never said more than a few nasty, sexist words to her, but she certainly knew him by reputation. She cleared her throat. "I think he just...wants every girl to want to be his girlfriend."

Max was silent a little longer. Then his eyes lit up as a thought occurred to him. "Do you...do you have a girlfriend?"

The unexpectedness of the question made Melanie blush. "Oh. Um, well, I mean...kind of. There's...there was, this girl, and we were...but she wanted to tell people that we were together, and I wasn't ready. So we decided to...wait a little while."

Max frowned. "But now that people know...is she gonna be your girlfriend again?"

Melanie cleared her throat. She'd spent weeks trying not to think of Allison, and now she was on the verge of crying again. "Um...I don't know. Maybe. I hope...I don't know."

Max just nodded. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

Melanie smiled. "It's okay, buddy. But I think Oscar's going to take a while to get over it." She patted her brother's shoulder, then slid off the bed. "I guess Mom probably wants to talk to you about all this too. But...are you...okay? With this?"

Max shrugged casually. "Yeah. Why not? You're still just my sister."

Melanie had to swallow down another round of tears. "Thanks, buddy. Let's go downstairs."

As Max headed down to the kitchen and their mother, Melanie hung back, sliding the cell phone from her back pocket. She lingered at the top of the stairs, staring at the screen for a few quiet seconds before typing.

_Can we talk?_

She was at the bottom of the stairs when the response came.

_Are you sure this is a good time?_

Melanie winced.

_Please. It's important_

There was another pause, during which Melanie had to repeatedly swallow the growing lump in her throat. Just as she sighed and went to put the phone back in her pocket, it started to ring. The name on the screen made her want to cry.

"Hello?" She winced. "No, I...I need to tell you something. Just...please, just listen, okay? No, I'm fine, that's...that's kind of why I need to talk to you. My brother...he told my mom. About...about me. And...she knew." She was crying again. Her hand was trembling, almost too hard to hold the phone steady. "They knew, they knew all this time. You...you were right. You were right about everything, and I'm sorry, and I miss you so much, I...oh god, Alli..."

In the kitchen, absentmindedly patting Max on the head, Mrs. Spencer listened. As whatever the girl—her _girlfriend_ —was saying made the sound of her daughter's crying go from pain, to relief, to joy, she couldn't help but smile.


End file.
